You are here

Hookworm

Hookworm is an intestinal parasite most commonly found in tropical and sub-tropical climates of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Hookworm, one of three members of a family of parasites known as the soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), are half-inch long worms that attach themselves to the intestinal wall and feed on human blood. Left untreated, hookworm causes severe intestinal blood loss leading to iron-deficiency anemia and protein malnutrition, particularly in pregnant women and children.

The Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative (HHVI) has identified and produced several candidates for potential use as a vaccine. HHVI is focused on developing and testing a vaccine to prevent moderate to severe hookworm infection in children younger than 10 years old living in endemic areas.

Sabin’s diverse partnerships are important to achieving the organization’s mission. The Sabin Vaccine Institute Product Development Partnership (Sabin PDP) leverages the expertise of partners in the academic, public and private sectors and promotes open-source research that focuses on capacity building, infrastructure development and knowledge sharing. To advance product development, we are working with institutions in Europe, Brazil, Malaysia and Mexico to expand product development and manufacturing capabilities to develop new vaccines.

With over a decade of experience, Sabin PDP has produced a well-rounded model that serves as a blueprint for the development of safe and effective vaccines against vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases. Existing capabilities include:

Most people have never heard of diseases like elephantiasis, river blindness, snail fever, trachoma, roundworm, whipworm, or hookworm. But one in six people globally, including more than half a billion children, have these organisms living and breeding inside their bodies.

Yet the solution to these diseases is relatively simple: For only 50 cents, we can provide one person with treatment and protection against all seven NTDs for up to one year.

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of 17 parasitic and bacterial infections that infect more than one billion people around the world, most of whom live on less than $1.25 per day. Without treatment, NTDs can lead to malnutrition, blindness, severe physical disabilities and even death.

The Global Network focuses our efforts on the seven most common NTDs, which make up 90 percent of the global NTD burden.

The Sabin Vaccine Institute PDP works on developing vaccines for the estimated 440 million people suffering from hookworm in the world today. Established in 2000 with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Sabin PDP (originally the Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative) is the first and only PDP in the world developing a vaccine for human hookworm infection.

Last Friday, Sabin president Dr. Peter Hotez was a featured guest on Soledad O’Brien’s CNN morning show “Starting Point.” On the show, Dr. Hotez discussed the burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) globally and closer to home in the United States.